Engineer / Designer

Tools for designers, product engineers, manufacturing professionals and other innovators collaborating on product development. If you are responsible for rapid authoring, analysis and validation of products and processes, then click here to find how ENOVIA can help.

ENOVIA Synchronicity DesignSync Central

ENOVIA® Synchronicity® DesignSync® Central™ allows Semiconductor companies to manage the hardware and software data in their products, in a secure collaborative environment for resolution of development issues and defects amongst geographically dispersed development teams.

The creation of complex electronic products is not an easy proposition, and is becoming increasingly complex with the proliferation of globally dispersed teams. Since 1998, integrated circuit (IC) design teams have relied on ENOVIA® Synchronicity® DesignSync® Data Manager to help manage the hardware and software data in their products. Today, over 120 development organizations, including 13 of the top 15 semiconductor companies, take advantage of ENOVIA Synchronicity DesignSync Data Manager to boost design productivity. ENOVIA Synchronicity DesignSync Data Manager was designed specifically for the Design Data Management (DDM) of complex integrated circuits, and continues to evolve as challenges facing the semiconductor industry evolve. ENOVIA Synchronicity DesignSync Central combines the capabilities of ENOVIA Synchronicity DesignSync Data Manager with ENOVIA’s world-class Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) collaboration platform, extending collaborative connections from local design teams to the global enterprise.

Provide traceability between the design and defect management decisions by capturing on-line discussions that can be searched and audited.

Provide non-engineering inputs to the issue and defect management process in order to more quickly reach a resolution and avoid project interruptions.

Ensure a standard repeatable issue and defect management process is implemented to obtain input from all cross-functional stakeholders and drive continuous improvement.

Provide data access controls that avoid financial and legal risks.

Client/Server Architecture

The client/server architecture allows for design work to proceed without connection to the server. Communication occurs for data management operations or status reporting only. The architecture is suited uniquely to support geographically dispersed design teams. Servers may be globally distributed, and accessible from client applications anywhere.

Multisite Version Control

A “single source of the truth” is maintained, and made available to designers regardless of their physical location.

Distributed Data Storage

Data repositories (SyncServers) can be hosted at any design site for maximum local efficiencies. Data from multiple servers can be aggregated in a workspace automatically.

Transfer Diffs

A transfer mode allows only “diffs” (i.e. file deltas) to be transferred during check-in and checkout operations for both ASCII and binary data files. This capability provides maximum benefit in environments in which geographically dispersed design teams collaborate over high-latency networks. File transfer options are configurable between client and server combinations.

Data Replication

Sophisticated caching mechanisms support data replication and minimize disk space usage by creating workspaces using symbolic links to shared read-only data files. Static and dynamic caching mechanisms are supported. If a workspace is constructed using a static cache, updates are controlled by the user. If a dynamic cache is used, updates occur automatically, so the workspace is always up to date. Caches make efficient use of disk space, because workspaces consist of links to read-only copies of shared files. Physical copies need only be fetched for edit operations. The mirroring system can be configured to automatically generate mirrors as data is released and populate the data into the local shared cache so data is replicated where it is needed ahead of time.

Module Linkages via Mcaches

The Mcache is an efficient data-sharing mechanism that enables copies of modules to be shared by local teams. This greatly reduces file storage requirements as well as providing a tremendous savings in terms of development time over fetching individual copies. The Mcache provides version context directly in the user’s local workspace, making it easier and quicker to determine that one is working with the correct module versions.

Foreign Configuration Management Modules

In many organizations, circumstances mandate that design data is managed in a variety of systems. ENOVIA Synchronicity DesignSync Central provides the ability to integrate data from other configuration management systems and allows developers to easily retrieve a complete design hierarchy across all the systems managing data for project-wide functions such as system test or tape-out.

Security

Internet Based Transfer Protocols

Data transactions use standard internet protocols and work seamlessly with existing firewalls.

Audit Trails

Detailed revision control activity is captured in a database, which may be queried using a standard Web browser.

Sophisticated Access Controls

Protection of valuable design data is ensured by setting configurable access controls. Data access is controlled in the server, and does not rely on UNIX® permissions. Access to data can be controlled based on a user’s identity, the data the user wishes to access, and the command the user wishes to run to operate on the data. An intuitive graphical user interface is provided for definition and administration of access controls.

Sophisticated Workspace Management

Multiple methods are provided for the creation and maintenance of designer workspaces supporting differing work styles. For example, workspaces can be configured to incorporate changes made by others either on demand, or automatically.

Configurable Use Models

Both the “locking” model and the “non-locking” model are supported to suit either design team or individual preferences. An intuitive built-in SITaR workflow facilitates design collaboration, and increases quality by ensuring that all design work is performed in the context of a stable project, or system, baseline.

Module Centric View in DesignSync User Interface

The DesignSync interface includes both a directory-centric and a module-centric workspace view. The module-centric workspace view makes it easy to determine which data is associated with which module, especially when data from multiple modules is overlapped in the same workspace directory structure.

Tag Module Hierarchy

The tag command supports the application of a tag to all the module versions included in a specific module hierarchy. Examination of tags associated with lower level modules provides valuable “where used” information. For example, ALU module version 1.137 could be tagged CHIP1_R3, indicating that version 1.137 of the ALU module is included in the R3 release of CHIP1.

Built-in SITaR Workflow

A standard workflow in which all design work proceeds in the context of a stable system baseline is included. SITaR facilitates project setup and collaboration by providing a simplified and intuitive command set for use by designers and integrators. SITaR enables design teams to leverage the power of modular design, while minimizing the learning curve. This is because SITaR wraps underlying DM commands in the context of a well-defined workflow.

Where Used Capability

A design hierarchy can be traced from the bottom up, providing answers to the question: “where has this design block been used in other design blocks or products?”

Version History Reporting

Brief or detailed reports of the version history of an entire module, or an individual design object, provide a complete genealogical record.

Vault Browser

A sophisticated vault browser provides a graphical display of the history of a managed object.

Annotations

An ASCII file can be graphically annotated with information about who last changed each line in the file, and when.

Diff and Merge Tools

Both graphical and command line diff and merge tools are provided, including TkDiff.

Comparison Utilities

Sophisticated utilities allow for the comparison of module versions, releases, hierarchies and workspaces. A workspace can be compared with a known configuration, or even with another workspace. Comparison of file content makes use of checksums so that file versions with identical content, but which are stored as different versions, are reported as being identical.

Graphical User Interface

The user interface of ENOVIA Synchronicity DesignSync data management allows for the navigation and manipulation of data at both the detailed file level and at the more abstract module level. Comparison utilities, diff tools and a command line interface are included.

Command Line Interfaces

Two command line interfaces are provided. The “dssc” shell runs ENOVIA Synchronicity DesignSync Central data management commands. The “stclc” shell is a Tcl interpreter, into which the ENOVIA Synchronicity DesignSync Central data management commands have been linked, providing programmatic capabilities and access to other utilities.

Extensible Architecture

The command set can be easily extended by creating aliases or auto-loaded Tcl procedures.

Client Side Triggers

You can easily introduce process automation to increase efficiency and decrease errors by creating Tcl procedures that are registered to intercept operations and perform other operations. For example, if a layout object is checked in, a Design Rule Check procedure could be run automatically, and if clean, the check-in operation is allowed to proceed.

C-API

ENOVIA Synchronicity DesignSync Central can be easily integrated with other tools using a fully documented C-API.

Plug-in for Source Code Control for Software Components

ENOVIA Synchronicity DesignSync Central includes a plug-in for the Microsoft Visual Studio IDE (Integrated Development Environment).

Integrations with SW Development Environments

Integrations for the popular Eclipse and Microsoft Visual Studio SW development environments are provided as part of ENOVIA® DesignSync Central™. These integrations allow developers to quickly and easily interact with ENOVIA® DesignSync® to manage design data without leaving their editing environment.

EDA Tool integration API

ENOVIA® Synchronicity® for CTS (Custom Types System) provides an API for creation of custom complex data types. ENOVIA Synchronicity for CTS is used to enable EDA data awareness for arbitrary data types in ENOVIA Synchronicity DesignSync Central. Using ENOVIA Synchronicity for CTS, one can enable EDA data awareness for any EDA tool, whether developed in house, or commercially available.

Cross-functional Enterprise Collaboration

ENOVIA Synchronicity DesignSync Central exposes semiconductor design data to the extended enterprise so companies can cross-functionally collaborate to resolve product development issues and defects. It leverages the following standard capabilities from the ENOVIA Collaboration Platform to offer a secure, structured, virtual semiconductor design workplace for geographically dispersed teams:
- Collaborate Securely
Easily create secure collaborative workspaces that allow suppliers and partners to be involved with the DesignSync project team early and throughout the product development process; assign responsibilities with default and access rights to members and teams.
- Define Virtual Teams
Add team members, assign roles and responsibilities, and provide default access online to assemble cross-functional teams in virtual workspaces quickly and easily.
- Manage and Track Defects
Easily raise defects against design data or any other object in the enterprise system. Define change boards to sign-off on a defect’s implementation review and control the approval of defect actions.
- Management Reports
Track design defect workloads and trends using configurable graphical metrics-based reports with data summaries and roll ups. Crystal Reports can be leveraged for more advanced formatting options.
- Create Discussion Threads
Create multi-threaded discussions for sharing ideas and reference documents. Subscribe and automatically receive ongoing communication to keep abreast of developments and final decisions. Easily sort discussions by workspace, folder or content, or search them to find exactly the information required to answer the question at hand.
- Implement Company Best Practices
Institutionalize the company's best practices by creating routing templates and folders, add files and content to folders and generate routing paths, approval lists and actions using delegation rules, task escalation rules and additional route logic. Implement checks that enable the automation and enforcement of standard practices across the entire enterprise.
- Decision/History Capture
Automatically capture the dialog that solved tough designs and discussions in order to retain team knowledge. All information is kept in a managed, easy to search and auditable system.
- Cross Team Collaboration
Teams beyond engineering can easily add their own content to the overall product knowledge. This provides the ability to classify the non-engineering data in the same classification system alongside the engineering data, or in its own libraries using a bookshelf and document organization.
- Automatic Notifications
Enable users to subscribe to standard notifications, content owners to send push notifications and administrators to customize system notifications by company.
- Secure Access
Allow workspace leads to set default access definition for the workspace, including folders and subfolders. Assign granular access for specific content. Administrators can assign company specific vaults and file stores.
- Defect Management
Users can define defects with attributes and characteristics targeted at semiconductor and software development processes, and associated to design data managed in ENOVIA DesignSync Data Manager. In addition, defects may be created from issues. This allows the separation of the customer facing discussion and the internal facing discussion about the implementation problem and its correction. This enables better definition of the problem and solution as well as isolation of proprietary internal concerns. An issue may be associated with multiple defects and a defect may be refined into multiple defect actions. Change boards are defined to create and sign-off on a defect’s implementation review and control the approval of defect actions. Dashboards are provided to review defects, defect actions, and implementation reviews.